Alex Kirk of Los Alamos is among five players who make up the Pistoia Basketball Quintet of the Decade 2010-2019. Courtesy/PistoiaSport
SPORTS News:
International Basketball star Alex Kirk of Los Alamos is named among five players who make up the Pistoia Basketball Quintet of the Decade 2010-2019:
Center: Alex Kirk
The heart is not controlled, but in this case the red and white fans make an exception. Yes, because in competition in spot 5 there also was Fiorello Toppo, beaten by Alex Kirk. Kirk landed in Pistoia in the summer of 2015 and proved immediately a player capable of making a difference. The highly educated hand allows Kirk to have a double dimension. Dominant in long stretches (16.3 points and 7.6 average rebounds per game, his numbers at the end of the season), the former Cleveland Cavaliers drags the Tuscans first to the historic qualification for the Italian Cup Final Eight, then to the playoffs, where Giorgi Tesi Group is eliminated from Avellino. For Kirk and his companions there is much applause.
Player: Brad Wanamaker
Despite the presence of Ronnie Moore among the candidates, his victory was practically obvious. Perhaps not only the best playmaker seen in Pistoia in the last ten years, but even the best player. Arriving quietly in red and white, in the ’89 class it took very little to make the fans of the PalaCarrara fall in love. Not only for his vision of the game, but also for the leaders’ baskets. Already leadership, the characteristic that led him first to become a reference point in Europe, especially at Fenerbahce, and then to return overseas from the main door, signing with the Boston Celtics. Your numbers in Pistoia? 16.1 points, 5 assists and 20 evaluation points per race. Phenomenon.
Guard: Dwight Hardy
He starts playing basketball in the Bronx and when he arrives in Pistoia (2011-12 season) he is 25 years old and the face of someone who would like to split the world. Before the challenge at the top with Brindisi he declares that in the city “the fans are crazy, hotter than in college” and this is worth a love that at the end of 2019 no one has yet forgotten. Like his plays and in fact Dwight is the most voted guard among those who alternated between A2 and Serie A.
Small Wing: Micheal Hicks
The uncle of Panama takes the palm of best 3 of the red and white decade. His experience and his points in delicate moments are fundamental for the promotion to Serie A. A ride, the red and white one, in which the imprint of the ex Montecatini is tangible. Hicks is in fact a great locker room man, an idol of the fans and his name, together with that of all his companions, will remain etched in the mind of the people of Pistoia forever.
Great Wing: Giacomo Gek Galanda
Three badges, an Italian cup and an Italian super cup, the gold of France ’99 and the silver of Athens 2004. Read the palmares of the National Gek, you think it ended the career at Pistoia Basketball and you feel bad. In red and white from 2011 to 2014, among the heroes of the promotion, he gave class games to the people and valuable advice to his companions. Removed the tank top he sat behind the desk: an experience that started well and ended a bit like this, without even too many explanations from both sides. But Galanda, the “4” of the decade, has remained tied – emotionally and professionally – to our city.
Coach Paolo Moretti
A stormy farewell in the summer of 2015 and a second experience that ended badly in the last months of last season did not weaken the love of the red and white fans. Paolino wins the competition of Esposito and is the coach of the decade. Too strong, we read in the comments, the emotions related to the return to Serie A, the freshman year with the prestigious victories at the PalaCarrara and that unforgettable eighth of the playoff final with Milan. It must be nice to find that the emotions experienced in those seven years have not yet vanished.